This proposal is designed to study the development of self-control of crying and its effects on depression. The first study will be conducted in a laboratory setting and will involve college-age women; they will be selected from those who report the highest and lowest frequencies of crying incidents on a prescreening questionnaire. In a pilot study, global estimates of crying frequency on this questionnaire provided a reasonable approximation to data obtained from self-monitoring procedures. The subjects will be asked to try to cry or to refrain from crying while watching one or two depressing films. Self-report of cognitive and somatic strategies used by subjects to facilitate and inhibit crying will be obtained along with psychophysiological data. It is expected that the High Frequency group will be most successful at crying, and the Low Frequency group will inhibit more. The possible therapeutic usefulness of depressive affect on a standard scale. A second study will involve collection of normative data on parental reports of crying frequency among 1 to 12-year-old children for a one-week period. The sample will consist of 10 boys and 10 girls at each age level; the approximate age at which sex differences in crying frequency appear will be sought. Particular attention will be paid to reports of parents' and peers' responses (reinforcing and punishing) to the crying episodes to assess their contribution to acquisition of self-control of crying. The two proposed studies should contribute practical information for clinicians working with behavior problem children and depressed adults by collecting normativer data on children's crying frequency from a nonclinic population and by evaluating the hypothesis that crying has a therapeutic effect. Mechanisms mediating the development and performance of self-control over the autonomically-mediated response of crying may contribute to the study of psychophysiological disorders. Knowledge of sex differences in crying frequency and individual differences in self-control of crying will facilititate future, more naturalistic studies of the functional significance of crying.